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Monday, July 15, 2013

CONFLICTING REPORTS ACCUSE ISRAEL OF STRIKES ON SYRIA

Here’s an interesting report on the Syrian Civil War. Apparently some Radical Muslim members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has assassinated an FSA leader that was not a follower of Radical Islam. Spokesmen representing the less radical members of the FSA say revenge will be forthcoming against al Qaeda influenced assassins within the FSA.

I am uncertain how that will play out. There is a Civil War between the forces of Bashar al-Assad and the primarily Sunni Muslim rebels. A Civil War within a Civil War could erupt between FSA Secular-to-Moderate Sunnis and FSA Radical Islamists.

The British Sunday Times published a report on Sunday which blamed a 5 July strike on a weapons depot in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia on Israel’s Dolphin-class submarines, contradicting a report previously published by the US news agency CNN that it was the Israeli Air Force which carried out the strike. Citing intelligence sources in the region, the Times report added that the strikes were carried out in coordination with the US, and targeted an arsenal of 50 Russian-made Yakhont P-800 anti-ship missiles, strategic weapons of a type Israel has repeatedly said it won’t allow to be transferred to the Lebanese Shi’ite terror militia Hezbollah. Last year, Russia refused requests from Israel and other countries to refrain from shipping the missiles to the regime of Syrian president Bashar Assad.

In related news, the civil war in Syria became immensely more complicated and potentially deadly on Friday when rebel groups aligned with the mostly indigeounous Free Syrian Army (FSA) declared that they would take vengeance on the foreign al-Qaida-linked militants for their assassination of a senior FSA commander, Kamal Hamami.

“We will not let them get away with it because they want to target us," a senior FSA commander said on condition of anonymity. "We are going to wipe the floor with them."

Opposition groups have reported increasing numbers of clashes between rebel factions, creating a war within Syria’s civil war even as the regime continues to regain territory on several fronts.

However, rebel factions have also been bolstered by Islamist fighters from many countries, including a contingent from the Pakistani Taliban.